Amicus

Our Story

Founded in June 2015 by Mahesha Subbaraman, the law firm of Subbaraman PLLC is dedicated to providing clients from all walks of life with effective appellate representation. In this regard, Subbaraman PLLC has litigated cutting-edge legal issues in the areas of constitutional law, civil forfeiture law, business law, and immigration law. Subbaraman PLLC also provides pro bono appellate services to nonprofit organizations and individuals who otherwise cannot afford appellate counsel.

Our Founder

Born and raised in Minnesota, Mahesha Subbaraman is a graduate of Amherst College and the University of Minnesota Law School. As an appellate attorney, he has represented clients in state and federal courts on a variety of ground-breaking legal matters. Before founding Subbaraman PLLC, Mahesha served as an associate at the Minneapolis, MN office of Robins Kaplan L.L.P. and as a staff attorney at the Arlington, VA headquarters of the non-profit Institute for Justice.

Mahesha Subbaraman

Founder & Owner

Our Work

Just a few examples of our appellate work.

Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance

Amicus | Ocheesee Creamery v. Putnam

Can the government monopolize the definition of "skim milk" on food labels? That is the issue tackled by this friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Americans for Forfeiture Reform

Amicus | Luis v. United States

Can the government seize "untainted" assets that a defendant needs to pay for a lawyer. That is the issue tackled by this friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Restore the Fourth

Amicus | United States v. Ganias

Can the government seize one's digital papers and keep them forever? That is the issue tackled by this friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

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Latest News

Based on a statistical analysis of “the over 800 amicus briefs filed in [the U.S.] Supreme Court on the merits for the 2017 term,” Empirical SCOTUS has found that Subbaraman PLLC was the “top-ranked repeat player” amicus firm during the 2017 term. Created by scholar Adam Feldman, Empirical SCOTUS “leverages the power of statistics and analytics to answer current and historic questions about the United States Supreme Court.” Read the full study here.

On January 4, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in ALDF v. Wasden that an Idaho law restricting the free-speech rights of investigative food journalists to make audio/visual recordings at agricultural production facilities is unconstitutional. The Court thus took the same position expressed in a friend-of-the-court brief authored by Subbaraman PLLC on behalf of fifteen prominent food law & policy scholars scholars.

On March 29, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of New York merchants in Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman. Addressing the merchants’ First Amendment challenge to New York’s ban on credit-card surcharges, the Court found that this ban regulated commercial speech — not mere conduct — because the ban simply controlled how merchants described credit-card surcharges to customers. The Court thus took the same position expressed in a friend-of-the-court brief authored by Subbaraman PLLC on behalf of a group of prominent First Amendment scholars and the First Amendment Lawyers Association. That brief can be read here.

Jan 6

Letter to D.C. Circuit Highlighted by Law360 News

Reporting on an important legal challenge to the use of body scans and full-body pat-downs by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to screen airline passengers, Law360 cites a letter that Subbaraman PLLC drafted and filed on behalf of several consumer privacy and passenger-rights organizations: “Consumer groups asked the D.C. Circuit on Thursday to consider two recent highly publicized passenger screening incidents at airports in Los Angeles and Detroit as it weighs a challenge to the Transportation Security Administration’s final rule on airport body scanners, saying the technology is intrusive and hurting passengers.” Read the full article here (subscription required).

Dec 10

Amicus Brief Filed in SCOTUS Border Shooting Case

We are pleased to announce that we have filed an friend-of-the-court (amicus) brief on behalf of Restore the Fourth in an important Fourth Amendment case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court: Hernandez v. Mesa. The case concerns a U.S. border agent’s shooting of a 15-year-old boy across the U.S.-Mexico border. This brief explains why under the U.S. Constitution, U.S. officials may always be held liable for their arbitrary use of lethal force, no matter where the force was used or the nationality of the victim. The brief can be read here.

Subbaraman PLLC Cited in Minnesota Lawyer on Anti-SLAPP Case

The Minnesota Lawyer has published a detailed article on an important case before the Minnesota Supreme Court that Subbaraman PLLC helped to brief. At issue is whether Minnesota’s Anti-SLAPP immunity law violates Minnesota’s jury-trial guarantee: “[Attorney Robert] Hill hopes the court will declare that provision of the law unconstitutional on its face, saying the court needs to give ‘guidance’ to the Legislature, as well as the litigants and the bar, to protect the rules of civil procedure. To that end, Hill recruited Mahesha Subbaraman, a highly regarded appellate litigator with a solo practice in Minneapolis, to draft the brief. He also persuaded his old friend Eric Magnuson, the former chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and now a partner at Robins Kaplan, to argue the case. ‘Whenever I’m in a knife fight, I like to bring a Howitzer,’ Hill quipped.” Read the full article here.